A Few More Kidisms

More favorite kidisms:

Cronkies = high-heeled shoes

glop stick = lip gloss

high-heeled socks = knee high socks

clappety shoes = tap shoes

Puppy with a pink nose = the gift I drove all over Knoxville looking for that Emilia has decided is no longer good enough because it is not EXACTLY like Audra's

(those are all from Emilia, these next ones are from Audra)

Gie-kah = Micah

Ya-ya = Emilia

Huggle = Snuggle ("A huggle you")

Firssss = "I had it first so get your hands off"

I wanna hole you = Pick me up

hulk = milk

I soppin' = I need dry pants

hacoon = raccoon

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A couple weeks ago, I was talking to a friend and we got to talking about how much we manange in our homes and kids' lives. The topic of video games came up and she said she lets them play whenever they want, but the only play every couple days for a little while.

REALLY??

It seemed too good to be true, (I figured my kids would just play all day) but thought maybe I'd try it. If it means one less thing to manage, I'm all for it. I knew the first couple weeks would be bad, but hoped it would eventually lose it's appeal. We started a week and a half ago, and most of all free time has been spent playing video games.

Yesterday in the car we heard the question, "If you could make a new rule that everyone had to follow, what would your rule be?" The kids and I started talking about it and Micah finally answered, "I would make a rule that you could play video games whenever you want for as long as you want."

I said, "But then I'd never see you!"

Josiah said, "Sure you would because once we passed all the levels of all the games it would get a little boring."

Ummmm...

I don't think that "play whenever you want" plan works in our house. :)

Merry Christmas!

Down in a lowly manger
Our humble Christ was born
And God send us salvation,
That blessed Christmas morn:

Go, Tell It On The Mountain,
Over the hills and everywhere;
Go, Tell It On The Mountain
That Jesus Christ is born!


Thank you, God, for sending your Son, my Savior, to live and walk among us. Thank you for giving me the first gift of Christmas, the best gift of Christmas--Jesus Christ.


Merry Christmas!! May the Prince of Peace rule in your heart today and everyday.

Santa

Emilia and Audra were a little hesitant about sitting with Santa, but eventually went for it anyway.


Micah, telling Santa his wish.


Judging by the smile on Micah's face, Santa must have thought he could do that!




Josiah's turn...



I wish you could have seen Emilia's animated little hands flapping around explaining her list to Santa. It takes a lot to describe the greatness of a Cinderella doll!


Nobody knows what Audra was thinking. I think the other kids gave Santa some suggestions for her, though. :)


Just chatting with Santa--what fun memories with the kids!

My Girls

I had a great day with my girls today.

I didn't see a whole lot of the boys today because they spent their every free moment playing their new Wii game. (Don't worry, they don't usually play the Wii all day. I'm not a negligent parent. In fact, they usually only play for an hour once or twice a month. But yesterday they got a new game that they are VERY excited about. Besides, what good are rules if you don't get to break them every now and then?)

My girls.

Emilia is so funny. She'll tell her dad, "Da-ddy! I can't be YOUR girl--I'm already MOMMY'S GIRL!"

My whole day started off with Emilia making me laugh. I was lying in bed and heard her stomp down the hall to the bathroom and while she's using the facilities she's singing: "ACCIDENTS! I'll have no AC-CI-DENTS! Accidents, no accidents!"

I couldn't help myself but to laugh at her, mostly because she reminds me so much of my sister and this was just another thing to add to the list. (My sister sang all sorts of random songs when we were growing up.) How did I end up with a kid that is so much like my sister?? Genetics are weird.

Audra had a go with the make-up again today. She walked out to eat dinner and all I could do was shake my head at her. Of course Emilia follows behind saying, "She wanted to be an indian again. I helped her with her cheeks a little."

Oh no! What happened to my face??!?


Maybe I could pull off a pirate...what do you think?


Humph. Well fine. Be that way.


Emilia's make-up was a bit tamer...but only by comparison!


Thankfully, Audra seems to enjoy the make-up removal as much as she enjoys putting it on. After I had cleaned both of their faces with my make-up remover stuff, Audra asked for "More. Nother." and carried around a cotton ball continuing to clean her face for quite awhile. Emilia took one look in the mirror after her face was cleaned and said, "Mommy! Look! My face is GOLDEN!" (It does leave their faces kinda shiny). :)

This afternoon after Audra's nap, she and Josiah and I were snuggling together in the chair. Emilia came running up to us and said, "Hey! Can I join you guys? We'll be all family'd up!" She's such a sweet, silly girl!

Audra quietly disappeared for awhile this afternoon. Always a suspicious activity from a child. So I went looking and found her sitting on her bed with "My Little Word Book." I sat down with her and let her amaze me with her booming vocabulary. It makes me laugh to think that just 3 months ago at her well-check she wasn't saying anything--at least not consistently. I'd heard her say some words, but she wouldn't say them when I asked her to, she wouldn't repeat words she heard others say, and she mostly didn't talk at all other than babbling. Her pediatrician asked if I was concerned and I said no, because I knew she was capable of talking, she was just choosing not to talk. Within a week of that appointment Audra started talking. And her vocabulary has been exploding ever since. It was fun to look at the book with her and hear all of the words she knows that I didn't know she knew. Kids are so amazing.

I also curled Emilia's hair this morning. First time. I've curled the ends before, but I've never really CURLED her hair. It was her request, she was still and well behaved the whole time and she LOVED the results. Sadly, her hair holds curl just about as well as mine, which is to say, not at all. By the time we got to my mom's house 30 minutes later, only the ends were curly. But this is how it looked straight out of the bathroom. She was THRILLED and all too happy to pose for pictures. :)



And today, Audra started fixing hair. I first noticed it when Emilia was watching TV and Audra climbed on the couch next to her and was gently separating out sections of her hair and smoothing them down with her hands. She did it for about 5 minutes and it was so sweet. Then, after lunch, she was sitting in my lap and did the same thing to my hair. I asked, "Are you fixing my hair?" She said, "Yeah." And after a few minutes of taking different sections of my hair and smoothing them down, she said, "A go." (Meaning: There you go). So sweet, I just love moments like that!

We had a fun day. I hope you all had a fun day, too!

How to Display Kid's Artwork

My kids love to color and paint and sticker and make all sorts of beautiful pictures. With 4 of them expressing their creative geniuses so often, there is constantly an endless stack of priceless masterpieces in my "I-need-to-do-something-with-this" pile. It's more than I could, would or ever will be able to keep.

Sometimes the kids get mad when I throw away their beautiful papers. (I usually try to sneak them out at night, but sometimes I get busted.)

Emilia tried out a new technique today. If you have a particular piece that you don't want to see in the trash, here's how you can hang it up to be saved for all time:

Don't even THINK about touching my picture.



YES!! I did it!





John calls it "the hideous monstrosity on the door."

I don't think this new technique is going to work out quite like she planned.